Video summary
The podcast features a discussion on the current religious revival among young people, which hosts Ariel and Angela attribute to the Holy Spirit actively stirring hearts amidst an era dominated by internet culture, AI, and social media. They argue that while pop culture often promises freedom through lifestyle choices like those seen in Hollywood or self-help trends involving manifesting and chakra alignment, these avenues ultimately leave individuals feeling empty, anxious, and depressed. The hosts contend that the only thing capable of filling this void is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, who offers true safety and life rather than bondage. They highlight a demographic shift where older generations are leaving their childhood faiths due to disillusionment or survival mode, while younger people, having access to resources like therapy but still facing deep existential questions, are increasingly seeking spiritual grounding that aligns with their need for purpose beyond mere survival. A significant portion of the conversation addresses the distinction between religion as a system of rigid moral rules and an intimate relationship with God based on love. The hosts describe traditional morality-based faith systems as miserable obligations akin to obeying a spouse out of fear rather than affection, whereas following Jesus is portrayed as entering into a loving partnership where one's heart becomes united with Christ's. They emphasize that Christianity is not about being perfect or adhering strictly to laws but about allowing the Holy Spirit to sanctify believers and transform their character over time. This transformation provides a firm foundation for life in an unstable world, offering stability against fluctuating emotions and subjective truths, which they argue are often driven by ego and pride rather than objective reality. The dialogue also explores how this faith impacts personal relationships and public perception, particularly regarding the hosts' pasts involving mental health struggles, addiction, and a former "Girls Gone Wild" lifestyle in Los Angeles. They assert that their journey from darkness to light validates Jesus's power to redeem broken lives, making it impossible for critics or skeptics to weaponize their history against them because death has literally been turned into life through Christ. While acknowledging the scrutiny of internet fame and the temptation to be performative, they explain that sharing their testimony is guided by a sense of conviction from the Holy Spirit rather than personal desire for attention. They also touch upon the tension between being bold in ministry and maintaining humility, noting that Jesus embodies both traits simultaneously as a lion and a lamb, challenging cultural definitions of masculinity that prioritize ego over sacrificial service. Looking toward the future, Ariel expresses a deep desire to engage in evangelistic work in the Middle East, specifically aiming for massive spiritual movements among Muslim communities, while Angela focuses on healing physical ailments like cancer and building orphanages to care for broken children. Both hosts reflect on their journey from self-focused ambition to Christ-centered service, describing life with Jesus as a continuous process of dying to one's own ego and relying entirely on God's strength. They conclude that the Christian walk is not easy but offers an anchor against depression, anxiety, and chaos by replacing fleshly desires with spiritual guidance. Ultimately, they encourage listeners to move beyond superficial religious constructs or atheistic skepticism toward a living relationship with Jesus, inviting everyone to experience the peace, safety, and transformative love found in following Him regardless of their past failures or current struggles.
Read the full video transcript
Talk to me about what you think is
driving this religious revival among
young people at the moment. Okay. Well,
I think what's driving it is the spirit
of God himself. I think that um you know
we are in such an interesting time in
history right now where it is basically
what seems like um the generation of the
internet and AI and social media and at
the same time you literally have God you
have Jesus infiltrating the entire earth
with his spirit and like reviving
people's hearts um towards spirituality
and that's why I feel like you see a
rise in all of spirituality at the
moment And it is like the Holy Spirit
coming and stirring everybody's hearts.
And right now, specifically in Southern
California and in so many different
parts in the UK, so many different parts
of the world, um, we all just know that
the Lord is really getting ready to pour
out his spirit in a way that we haven't
seen it in a long time. What do you
think's missing from pop culture? Were
you going to say something? Well, I just
wanted to add on to that that I think
why revival is coming is because
everyone's realizing that all these
things aren't working anymore. Everyone
is depressed. Everyone is anxious.
Everyone is trying to fill a void. And
the only thing that can fill that void
is Jesus. And that's just the truth. And
so I think everybody is trying to do all
these things and they're like, "Wait a
minute. I still feel so empty." And so
then they come into relationship with
Jesus and they're like, "Wait a minute."
Okay. And so I know that's our story. We
were always so lost and empty and um we
tried everything and then that's when we
found Jesus and he filled that void that
was always missing. So what's the story
of how you two met? What's the arc of
how you ended up getting here? Oh, this
is my favorite story. Um
my life was just in shambles. I was
severely depressed. I was just I was
like on my way out. That's how depressed
I was. My mind completely broke. Um I
spent my whole life trying to fill the
void and other things. And I always came
up feeling very empty and alone and
lost. I come from darkness. I come from
the world. Um and I hit a wall and I was
just on my way out. I met Jesus in a
little Catholic church by my house. And
my I don't come from a a household of
faith. And so I remember calling my
family and being like,"I think I just
found God." And they're like, "What? All
right, Ariel, you've gone crazy." And so
I would sit in the in the pews in this
little church and I would sit there for
hours and just cry out to Jesus and be
like, "Help me." I I was I didn't feel
adequate in the church. Not that it's
the church's fault, but I come from a I
don't come from a religious household.
So I had been praying fervently. Would
you bring me a friend that is cut from
the same cloth that can help me, that
can do this walk with me, that can, you
know, hold my hand through this? Five
months later, I meet Angela at a job. I
was crying in my hands. I was like
struggling so much and she took my hand.
I didn't even know she was there. I
looked over at her and I was like, "Is
that an angel?"
And yeah, Angela's just been my human
angel. She had already been, what was
it, three years into your faith? Three
years into her faith. And um she showed
me the Bible and she spoonfed it to me
every day and it started healing my
mind. And I come from a background that
you needed to be on medication, you
needed to do manifesting methods, you
needed to go to psychus, you need to do
all these things and align your chakras.
Yep. And so she starts reading me the
Bible and it completely started healing
my mind. And so we went on this
beautiful journey together of chasing
Jesus. Yeah. It seems like you've
discovered something other than the sort
of girls gone wild
lifestyle that pop culture often pushes
on young women. What What do you think
was missing there? What was it that was
unfulfilling in everything that you'd
done pre? Because you guys had career
success, you know, an open trajectory,
the opportunity to do stuff. Hollywood,
LA lifestyle. I'm sure that you could
have become It Girls in a different way.
What was missing from that previous
life? Yeah. I mean, yeah, we've
definitely um
gone the opposite direction of Girls
Gone Wild because anything that the
world pushes on to you, and I'm sure you
know this, like there's just so much
messaging from the media, from
Hollywood, from the world that is
completely lifeless, that's completely
um opposite to what it's offering you.
Like the world will be like this is
liberating. Do this, wear this, be like
this because this is freedom. this is
liberating liberating but the truth is
it's actually the thing that keeps you
in bondage. It's actually the thing that
hurts you. Um whereas Jesus sends a
message that the world sees as like
that's restricting, that's religious,
that's legalistic, but really he's like
actually there's so much freedom in the
safety that I offer when you live life
the way that I call you to. And so for
Ari and I, I mean we both have like a
journey with mental health, with
anxiety, with obsessivempulsive
disorder. I've been sober for 5 years
after self-medicating with alcohol to
help my anxiety. You know what I mean?
Like how many of us go through these
vicious cycles of like self-help, trying
to feel better and always coming up
short, in fact feeling worse than you
did in the first place. Like that's our
whole story. And so, you know, the
beautiful thing about Jesus is that once
he gets a hold of your heart, he begins
to speak truth and he begins to show you
the truth about situations. And I
remember early on in my faith around
like co time, I started to realize like
there was just such a strong messaging
from the world. And you start to wonder
like why are these things being pushed
so hard? Like what is really behind all
of this? And I really felt the Holy
Spirit begin to tell me like it is dark.
Like they're pushing darkness and it's
leading you to destruction. Come my way
because I offer life. I offer peace.
Like there's one way that leads to
darkness truly and there's one way that
leads to light. And that might sound so
weird to people who don't understand. Um
it might sound super religious, but take
it from two girls that don't follow
religion. Like we follow Jesus, we
follow the Bible. And it's not a
religious thing. It's actually like
imagine frolicking in a field like
completely happy in a sundress. You
don't have to wear a sundress, but like
you know what I mean?
And it's just like a beautiful,
beautiful life that he calls you to
live. Yeah, it's weird. I think the uh I
was thinking about how a normal life in
maybe 1940, even as someone that wasn't
particularly religious, would be
probably from a social perspective super
super religious come 2025. that in the
space of not very long, the level of
sort of uh liberal social approaches
like how you're supposed to set your
life up, what relationships are supposed
to look like, maybe the way that the
home is supposed to be constructed. A
lot of that's changed. And I wonder how
much of this is people who have found
themselves sort of born into a culture
that they just feel is quite mismatched
for them. They're thinking, "Huh, like
this just doesn't align with me." And
I'm not really too sure why. Uh but
there's an interesting dynamic going on
right now. One in five American adults
have left their childhood faith behind.
Yeah. But we also have more young people
than ever before who are converting to
some form of religion. So the people
that grew up with it are leaving it and
the people who grew up without it are
transitioning to it. And it's this sort
of I don't know odd dance that's going
on. I'm trying to work out what's
happening there. That's so special. It's
so It's so true. And I've noticed that
too, how it's like I mean the younger
generation right now is absolutely like
they're exploding with faith. And I
think like the generation above us, they
just went through so much. They went
through so much in their lifetime. I
think about my parents' generation, your
parents' generation, a lot of them,
maybe yours as well, they kind of lived
in survival mode a lot of the time. Um
they didn't have the resources we did.
they didn't have the access to therapy
and you know just like any sort of way
to be introspective like they didn't
have that the way that we do. So I think
while they were just trying to survive
we have a generation where because we
have so many resources and because so
many people's hearts are just on fire
and open to spirituality that like we
want to thrive at this point. We don't
want to just survive. So I think that's
the difference.
Yeah. It's it's I think it's so many
things, but I also think it's a lot of
it is shame. I think people
feel so shameful that they're like and I
and I'm saying this because this is how
I felt. I was like, I'm too far gone to
even step into a church. I've have too
much of a past. Like, why would Jesus
accept me? And so, they are in bondage
and shame that they can't even face
Jesus.
But I want to just remind people that
when I met Jesus, it was not when I had
it all together. I met Jesus when I was
I couldn't even clean myself up. When I
was in sin, when I was in the pit of
hell and he literally took me and he
took me out of the pit of hell and he
brought me to life. And people need to
know that's who Jesus is. But people
look at it as this is a religion. This
is too religious. He's giving me rigid
rigid rules and all these things. And
what I want to tell people is like, no,
if you understood Jesus, that he's your
dad, that he's slow to get angry, and he
and he like I'm I have my Bible open
right now. The Lord is compassionate and
merciful. He's slow to get angry and
he's filled with unfailing love. Like
this is who Jesus is. He's he's dad. He
loves you. Um what else does it say? It
says that he has removed our sins as far
as he has removed our sins as far from
us as the east is from the west. That's
how much like we feel like because we've
sinned like we can't come to Jesus and
it's like no Jesus loves us through
that. Like so yeah I just people need to
know like this isn't just a book of
rigid rules. It's relationship and he
loves you through everything and he's
he's sitting there like come to me like
come to me. I'm here for you. like come
in my arms and and I'll bring you to
life. And yeah, so anybody who
subscribes to a religion based on
morality is going to fall away. You know
what I mean? Like you can only like it's
such a deeply deeply spiritual thing. Um
it's an intimate relationship with a
person. Like I know that sounds crazy,
but Jesus is a person who speaks, lives,
breathes today. And so yeah, a lot of
our parents, a lot of the older
generation, like they just had these
this religion, this construct of
morality, and there's just no life in
that. Yeah. How do you describe the
difference between religion and a
personal relationship with God or Jesus?
Cuz I hear people talk about this a lot
and I don't actually know what that
means. I don't know what the difference
is. So can you explain that to me?
Totally. So I would describe religion as
you know kind of what I grew up in where
I didn't necessarily know Jesus on a
personal level where I I mean just to
like get into the background of a little
bit of theology like the whole point of
Jesus dying on a cross right was so that
he could reconcile us back to God in the
beginning of time you know about Adam
and Eve man fell sin entered the world
and our relationship to God completely
broke
somebody had to pay the penalty for our
sins. And Jesus came, God sent his son
onto earth to basically pay the price
for our sins so that we could have our
relationship with God back. And his
whole point in coming onto earth, doing
what he did, dying on a cross so would
be so that we could communicate with him
directly. And so religion is basically
reading the Bible and being like, "Okay,
A, B, C, and D. I can't do this, but I
can do that." But you don't actually
know why. You don't. It's it's obedience
without love. And obedience without love
is completely like it's it's as if
you're like being faithful to your
spouse, not because you love them, just
because you have to. That's miserable.
Like obedience without love is just
really sad. And so that's what a moral
religion is versus an intimate
relationship with Jesus where you're
like, "Your heart is my heart. I love
you because I know that you love me."
And so now we do this dance together
where the whole point of Christianity is
to be made into the image of God. The
Holy Spirit spends our entire lives
sanctifying us so that we become like
Jesus. We like develop the character of
Jesus. We have the mind of Jesus. And in
that way like we just serve him
wholeheartedly
and then that's where that relationship
comes in. You know what I mean? It's
birthed out of love. And and it might
sound crazy to a new believer, but I we
just encourage you to try it. To try it
because when Jesus gets a hold of your
heart, you're going to be like, "What
have I been doing my whole life?" Like
the safety, the love, the protection,
the favor. It's it's it changes you. It
transforms you. You looked You have to
see videos of me uh two years ago. If
you watch videos of me, you can you
watch me and it's like I have no life
behind my eyes. And you see me now and
it's like I look different. He
transforms you. You walk around with a
boldness not from the world but a
boldness of like I have Jesus. Like I
I'm safe. I'm protected. I'm loved.
What's better than that? You can't go
wrong with that. It's safety. So faith
is an anxiety cure for you. Faith is an
anxiety cure. Yeah, I guess you could
say that.
Do you have a certain denomination of
Christianity that you guys subscribe to?
I don't even know if that's the right
way to put it when it comes to talking
about what it is that you that you
follow. Yeah, I'd say we're both
completely non-denominational. I'd
probably describe myself as like
charismatic, which means basically you
just believe in the gifts of the spirit
and um that's a specific relationship.
I'm not saying I'm charismatic like but
like it's a term of charismatic like you
believe in the gifts of the spirit. um
you have like a relationship and like a
love for the Holy Spirit which some
denominations actually don't focus so
much on the Holy Spirit. Do you guys
feel like you fit a any standard sort of
Christian mold at the moment? Is this an
increasing cohort of people that are
going to be having personal relationship
with Jesus? Is this is this something
that you're going to see more of, do you
think? Yeah, I think that's what the
revival is that's happening. It's a
personal relationship with Jesus. like
he's coming as a friend, a dad, and he's
he's everything. And so that's how I
mean that's why revival is happening the
way it is. Yeah.
On the religious revival thing or the
Christian revival perhaps, I wonder
whether a bit of it is a firmer place
for your wants or your needs to stand
than just this feels good, bro. that if
you are thrown into a culture that
doesn't really feel like it aligns with
you and you feel a little bit out of
place and your justification for why you
don't want to behave in this way, act in
this way, have these particular beliefs,
follow this type of trend is just, you
know, like just doesn't sort of suit me.
That feels kind of flimsy. And
especially if you're saying, well, look
at all of the benefits that we've got
from a progressive society and look at
how, you know, the liberal values have
really helped you to get to this stage.
it just sounds like you're uh kind of
dispensing with a lot of progress that's
been made. Uh whereas if you say, "Well,
I'm, you know, I've got something that
feels a little bit it's a firmer place
to stand." And I'm wondering whether
that is in a world where you can become
anything that you want to be. That's
liberating, but it's also really
intimidating because you have to choose
from first principles. I'm going to
decide every single day what do I value
first? How do I go about my life? What
should a relationship look like? How
should I behave with my parents? How
should I show up in work?
you know, all of this stuff. And it's
it's difficult. Yeah, it's hard to do
that yourself. It's hard for everybody
to engineer their own direction without
any guidance at all. And I wonder
whether that sense of having all of the
options in the world but being lost
because you can't choose them. I wonder
whether that is sort of guiding people
towards something that feels a little
bit more like structure, guidance. Oh
yeah, of course. I mean, who wants to be
moving through the world not knowing
what you believe? It's like this whole
and I'm sure you've talked about this
like this whole phenomenon of like truth
like my truth your truth truth is
completely subjective whereas like like
real truth can't be subjective there has
to be one truth if Ari and I get into an
argument right now right I have my truth
she has her truth and neither of those
truths are the real truth because
there's one truth about what actually
happened separate from the emotion
that's involved like do you know what I
mean like any truth that is run by and
ruled governed by our emotions. I don't
like I don't want that type of truth. I
want a firm foundation to stand on and
like moving through life. And that's the
beautiful thing about Jesus, about the
Bible is that it never changes. You can
count on it today like you can in a
hundred years that it won't change based
on our moods, our emotions. And like I
know what it's like like to move through
life um completely fluctuating in
opinion and in thought in an emotion and
it's just not stable and like you wonder
why people struggle so much why they
there's so much instability and it's
like they need something from to stand
on that is not based on emotion. That's
really what I love about being a
follower of Jesus is that he's like your
heart is deceitful above all things.
Don't trust it. Like trust this. You
know it's a firmer place to stand. Yeah
it is. And believe me, we've tried it
out. I mean, you're talking to two girls
who lived by their own strength and then
we start following this and it's like
transformed our lives and you can't help
but follow Jesus and every day it forces
you to be the best version of yourself.
So, you can't go wrong. I mean, it's
it's hard. The the the Christian walk is
not easy. It's hard, right? But what's
what's difficult about it compared with
what you were doing previously? Well,
um, for instance,
we are all of us aren't good people. We
all are have pride. We all have ego. We
all have insecurities. We all are
sinful. That's just who we are. So,
every day it's a it's a daily dying to
self because Jesus with walking the path
with Jesus, it's you live in gentleness.
You live in you live in holiness, right?
which that means we're not perfect, but
every day it's saying, "Jesus, I'm so
imperfect. Help me with this." So, it
forces you like I don't get away with
anything. Me and her get in a fight. I
say something wrong to her. Immediate
conviction. I'm like, "Man, so all day
I'll my I'll be like Jesus will be like,
"Go talk to her right now." And I'll be
like, "I don't want to talk to her. Go
talk to her." So it's like it forces you
to forgive, be kind, be generous, be
selfless, be sacrificial.
So, and that's not easy. The that's not
easy to do as human beings. But um but
it's it's there's no other way to be
without that. We're walking around
prideful and sin, lustful. Um and that's
why everybody's depressed. When the
flesh is leading your life, that's you
know what leads? depression, anxiety,
chaos, um jealousy, confusion, all that.
So, but when the spirit leads, when
Jesus leads, that's when we're anchored.
That's when we're steady. That's when
our souls are steady and we're confident
and we we lead with with gentleness and
things like that. So, what else was
difficult when you made that pivot from
old life to new life? Say it again. What
else was difficult when you made your
pivot from old life to new life?
Um, well, like Ari said, the Christian
walk, being a follower of Jesus, he
calls you to deny yourself, pick up your
cross, and follow him. And so, picking
up your cross daily means that you've
been crucified with Christ, and now you
live with Christ. And that means that
everything about your old self had to
die. But what's interesting is that
while you become a new person, you
become a new creation. Unfortunately,
you're still human and you still have
all these little things, all these
impurities, all these like I'll just
speak from experience. Jesus has done an
incredible work by his spirit in my
heart of um just purifying my heart with
I I used to struggle with, you know,
pride. I used to struggle with uh
self-protecting. I was super tough. I
was super guarded. I never felt safe in
my life. I didn't feel safe in
childhood. So, I grew up with all these
defenses um and like this desire for
control which is just rooted in fear,
right? And so, Jesus saves my life and
we're on this journey together and like
every day I'm trying to be like him and
then all these old habits and ways of
being try to come up and then you have
to go through really hard work of being
like here we are again. We found
ourselves. crucify my ego, crucify this
pride cuz I don't want it. Like you
didn't live with pride on earth. I want
to be like you. And that's really
painful. You know, it's a lot of
spiritual work and then it's a lot of
heart emotional work too. You have to be
introspective. You have to allow the
Lord to come and like touch parts of
your heart that most of us don't look
at. A lot of us don't even know that's
in there. But you give your life to
Jesus and you have to be aware and it's
the greatest thing in the world. you're
gonna do really hard work because he
does not tolerate you being any less
than where he wants you to be. He's that
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What do you hear from your audience
about what they're struggling with? What
is it that they're coming to you and and
saying that they've got issues with?
Yeah, I mean, we have we talk about
mental health so much that we definitely
um have an audience that struggles with
their minds, a lot of mental health
issues. People deal with self-worth
issues. Um, people, specifically women,
I mean, they're constantly programmed
and indoctrinated to behave in a certain
way, look a certain way, be a certain
way, and then you meet Jesus and you're
like, "Okay, he's telling me to do the
opposite of this." And it is so
difficult because Ari and I are, you
know, blessed enough to have great
Christian community. We have great
people in our lives, but a lot of people
don't have that. So they're thrown back
into the world and they have to choose
every single day to be like Jesus, go
against the grain of what the world is
pushing on to them. And that's really
difficult. And I think just the mental
health um issue all over the plaine
planet is devastating. People are
riddled with anxiety. People are more
fearful than ever. We have more
resources to therapy and AI and all of
these things than ever. all the
information in the world and people are
struggling more than ever. I think sin
as well. Yeah. Um sexual sin is a big
one just because they don't know why
they're depressed and why they're
feeling all these ways and they're so
stuck and um so sexual sin. It's be you
know sexual sin has been a big one. What
is sin in your understanding? Why do
people need saving from it? Yeah.
Well, Chris, sin is sin is literally
what Jesus died to overthrow.
Sin um is what entered the world when
basically I describe it like this. We
there's an issue of will in the world.
It's our will or it's God's will. And
you see it from the beginning of time.
We have Adam and Eve in the Garden of
Eden. And Adam and Eve chose their own
will. God gave them everything that they
would ever need or want. He gave them
everything and he said, "Just live in my
will. Obey my will and you will live a
life of peace and harmony and beauty."
And they were like, "Sorry, we want our
will, right? They ruined it for the rest
of us. God bless them." And then we have
Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane all
those years later and he redeemed
everything that Adam and Eve did in the
Garden of Eden. Jesus redeemed in the
garden of Gethsemane when he said Lord
not my will be done but yours be done.
So it's this issue of will. So we get to
choose which way we want to go. We get
to choose whether we want God or whether
we want sin. And sin is anything that
goes against the natural order of the
way that God designed things. Everything
in this Bible that God taught and again
it's not like rules and regulations.
It's anything that separates you from
God. And sin comes in a multitude. It's
not just sexual sin, right? It's
impurity in your heart. It's the words
you speak. It's the things you do,
lying, cheating. We have the ten
commandments. Like, we all know those.
Um, but it's more than just like the
things you do. It's what's deep in your
heart. Sin. We were born with sin. Me,
you, Ari, every single one of us in this
room. And so, we have to actively let
the Holy Spirit for the rest of our
lives sanctify us and again bring us
back to our original image in God. You
mentioned that there was a tension
between uh what girls are being
encouraged to do, the way that they're
encouraged to live their lives and show
up and what you think is a more
wholesome lifestyle that you guys have
gone into. What's that tension there?
What what are the issues with modern
culture for women? Yeah.
What are modern cultures for women? Um
what is the issue with for women in
modern culture? Yeah. I think that, you
know, modern co modern women now are
like, I don't want to, sorry, my phone.
Let me just put this on. Do not disturb.
Um, modern culture says, I don't want to
go by the rules. I want to live how I
want to live. I don't want to submit.
Like, I want to live by my own truth.
Um, I think they read the scriptures,
wives, submit to your husbands, and they
stop there and they're like, wait a
minute, I'm not doing that. I'm not
submitting to him. But if you keep
reading the scripture, it says, "Men,
love your wives as Christ loved the
church." What does that mean? Christ
loved the church. He died for the
church. So men have a way huger
responsibility than women. Men have to
love their women have to be willing to
die for them, right? And so it's not
it's it's this beautiful partnership of
I'm going to trust you and I'm going to
submit to you because I'm trusting that
you're going to love me like Christ
loved the church. So we look at it like
it's weakness like I have to submit to
him and I have to be weak. No, that's
strength. That's me trusting you. That's
humility and selflessness. And so I
think just it's been so misconstrued.
And look, we don't want to ever be
doormats, right? If we're in AB,
sometimes we make bad decisions. We get
in the wrong relationships and we don't
want to ever take abuse. But that's why
we choose wisely and we choose choose
people that that love us like Christ
loved the church that would give their
lives for us, you know. Is that devotion
piece why you think people are so
unsatisfied with modern relationships?
What what's going wrong with modern
relationships from your perspective? Oh,
Chris, what's gone wrong with modern
relationship? We are here in LA. So,
this is in LA. Where do we start?
Can I just add one more thing to that
because I think this is really
important. There's just been such an
oversexualization of not even just
women, women and men. Um there things
have been truly so so go around LA, look
at the billboards. Everything is so
overly sexualized. Um and we live in a
culture where that's glorified,
glamorized. And again, they say like
this is liberating, but really it's the
opposite. It's so true. And then in
terms of dating, I think of course the
progressive movement has tried to make
this whole like men and women 50/50
um we're equal sort of thing. And what's
so beautiful about the original design
of Jesus, you got to read this book,
Chris. I'm telling you, because it'll
change your entire life because you
literally can read God's original design
for man and woman, husband and wife, and
you see how much it makes sense. Do you
see why there's harmony? Men and women
were not created 50/50. They're equal in
value. Yes. Different in role, different
in function, different in strengths. You
know what I mean? It's not um
we literally have gotten into this thing
in modern dating where we're like this.
Men and women are against each other.
We've pit women and men against each
other saying the future is female and
the poor men are like, "What about us?"
You know what I mean? You're a man. I
plan to hopefully have a son one day. I
can't imagine my son having to live in a
world where he's like the future's only
female. That doesn't even make sense.
You know, it's just this whole
progressive movement that creates so
much confusion and so much division. Men
and women were created to like work
beautifully and harmoniously together.
Not against one another, but
complimenting one another. And so, you
see in dating,
men don't want to be men. Women don't
want to be women. And so everything is
messed up. It's chaotic. And that's just
the truth. You come into a beautiful um
Jesusloving, godly relationship. And you
see how beautifully it flows because you
see a man be a provider, a protector.
You see lay down his life the way that
Christ died for the church. And you see
a woman be like a beautiful, nurturing,
loving, building up type of woman. And
it just flows. Why are we going against
the natural design? It's just insane.
Is there a tension, do you think,
between faith and modern femininity?
You've got some reconciliation that
needs to happen between biblical
womanhood and some of the progress
that's been made to give women
independence in the modern world. Do you
think there's a tension going on there?
Yeah. I mean, listen,
take it from two working women who have
jobs, who are love to work, and who are
in ministry and love what we do. And um
this whole there's just like this
pushing of hyperindependence
that I think is so damaging. I think we
were created as human beings first to be
so dependent on God. like we are
supposed to be hyperdependent on Jesus.
And then as women, we were created to be
in surrender and in submission to a
man's authority in marriage. Um, and
it's a beautiful, beautiful thing. And I
think obviously we've lost that with um
I'm not going to speak on the entire
progressive movement because I'm not I'm
not going to I'm not knowledgeable on
all of it. I don't know everything. But
from what I do understand, um the one
area that I see an issue is this this
place of hyperindependence. I think it's
damaging. I think it's harmful. I think
um being dependent on people that you
love and trust is a beautiful thing.
Take it from someone who's been
hyperdependent my whole life. and then
following Jesus, getting into a
relationship with a beautiful godly man
who I'm not married, so I'm not under
anybody's authority, but like as it
trends that way, you see the safety in a
relationship like this and it begins to
make sense. I don't need to fight for
power. I don't need power. I'm not
looking. Jesus didn't even fight for
power. I don't need power. But we do
understand from that that other side
because I remember being in
relationships and feeling like I have to
fend for myself. I need to work. I can't
depend on him. The minute he takes it
away, I'm going to be left alone and he
and I'm going to be like every I
remember being in a relationship. The
minute something went wrong, he'd pull
it away. You know what I mean? And so I
felt I remember feeling like, well, I
have to take care of myself. My mom
taught me, you better have your own cuz
anyone could leave at any time. So there
is that other side where we have so much
compassion. We do understand because the
world is crazy. I'm single right now.
dating is it's it's very hard to find
good men these days, you know, like a
good so I do we do see the other side of
women are scared. They are and so we
have so much compassion as well. It's
all well and good talking about in an
ideal world. This is how the design was
previously set. We have a book that
explains it. This is a good blueprint
for you to follow. Practicality comes
along and people have painful
relationships, painful breakups. they're
left cut a drift. Women are financial
prisoners or you know no longer
financially independent. They have to
stay in relationships they don't want to
be a part of. And I think it sounds
fantastic in principle but I wonder
whether in the modern world it's
compatible in practice and I wonder
there's obviously going to be a
difficulty for some people to commit to
something like that cuz they think well
this makes me very vulnerable. Totally.
And there's right there's no blueprint
as in like a woman has to stay at home
and a man has to go to work. I plan to
get married and still go to work. You
know what I mean? It's more of like a
it's just I I speak and there's so many
beautiful relationships where a man
stays home and a woman goes to work.
We're not remotely saying that that's
wrong or this is right. What we are
saying is that there is a natural flow
to a relationship where somebody has to
Would you agree with this Chris that
somebody has to lead? Yeah. Right. You
can't have two leaders. Have you ever
tried to co-lead something? It's really
hard. Well, you want to have one person
singing harmony and one person singing
lead. Both people are singing lead. It
doesn't sound very Exactly. Yeah. And so
one person leads the man is called to
lead their household in what we believe.
And so it's just and that doesn't
necessarily mean that he has to brea the
be the bread winner. It's like all of
this can't be boiled down to any sort of
um construct or like cliche.
But that's in the reason that that is so
difficult is that you have a modern
world now where for most people you need
two contributors financially. uh you
have had gains for women recently
education title n there's nearly 2 to1
women to men going to college and
university and I think the push back
feels like well hang on a second we just
got access to socioeconomic independence
and equality and you're now telling me
that this is something that I'm supposed
to submit I'm supposed to be devoted
like this feels like a regression this
feels like you're sort of pushing me
back and I think that that's a tension
that a lot of women will feel, which is
I like the idea of being led. I like the
idea of maybe being cared for. This
sounds really lovely to me, but also I
like the idea of being independent and I
don't like the idea of being at the
mercy of someone who I don't get to
control. Totally. It's the weird thing
about careers that I think one of the
reasons that people prioritize careers
over relationships is that only you can
leave your career, but not only you can
leave your relationship, right? Your
career doesn't leave you in that way.
And I'm aware that I'm going to guess
you would say it's less fulfilling. This
isn't where truth, you know, etc., etc.
This isn't devotion. This isn't going to
fulfill you in the same sort of way.
However, people come from a place of
fear. Totally. And when they do that,
they look for something that feels like,
okay, well, at least this is secure.
This is safe. I can hold on to it. It's
in my control. Yeah. Totally. Oh, I felt
like that many times. Yeah. But again,
like I'm just going to go back to it
doesn't mean you have to give up your
life. It doesn't mean you we all I
believe that so much happiness like God
gives us purpose. God puts us in
situations. God gives us things so we
can it's not like God wants us to just
be home and just complete completely
submitted to a man. That's been
misconstrued. That's not the truth and
that's not what God says. It just again
we're going to go back to just I'm going
to trust you. I'm going to trust that
you're going to lead me because you're
going to love me and you're willing to
lay your life down for me. That doesn't
mean that I love working. It's my
favorite thing ever. I don't even know
what I do even when I have kids. Like I
hope I can still work because I we truly
love it. We love it. So yeah. And I'll
just say one more thing. I am like this
whole people just have biblical
submission so so backwards. And I
totally understand because I was there.
I was like submit to who? Are you crazy?
Like
being a man in God's design is the most
difficult position. Like it is more
difficult to be a man in power, right,
who's leading than it is to be the one
who's submitting because a man's sole
purpose is to literally die to himself
and prefer his wife and his children
always. That's the point. So actually
the woman is in a very good position if
you are with a man who truly follows the
word of God and follows Jesus. It's
something entirely different if you're
with someone who doesn't know Jesus,
doesn't know the Bible, and is telling
you to submit. That's not what we're
talking about. You know what I mean? And
so, yeah, these are things that you have
to educate yourself on, that you have to
read on, that you have to read the word
of God so you actually understand, and
you don't get yourself into a situation
with a man who doesn't even know Jesus
and is telling you to submit and is
abusing you and treating you wrong like
the L. Let me tell you one thing. Jesus
doesn't stand for women being
mistreated, abused, left, cheated on.
Like that's not anything that he stands
for. You mentioned some of the
challenges that men have got in the
modern world. Uh finding a firm place
for them to stand on. What is my role?
Some demonization. I'm being made to
feel like I'm part of a patriarchy that
I don't get any of the benefits of. Like
where's where's my Bugatti? Um but more
men than women are becoming religious
for the first time in decades. It's an
increasing proportion of men over women,
especially of the young generation. Wow.
Why do you think that is?
I honestly don't know, but it makes me
really happy. Do you understand? I do.
You know, I didn't know that. And just
to hear you say that, I'm like, "Wow."
And that answers to another one of your
questions that there's going to God is
raising good men of God up so we can
finally Is this just to expand your
dating pool? Is that the main reason?
Maybe it is. I my my I was like, "Oh,
okay." Honestly, that thank you for
sharing that with us because that that
just shows that we're on the right
track. We're in the end times crisis.
Jesus is coming back. He's coming back
and that's why you there's a countdown
timer. No, no, no. There's no countdown.
You don't have to hurry up. We're right
here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I've got to I I
said I was going to tell you a story
about when I messed up. Here, please.
Finally, we want to hear you talk. We're
good. Yeah, that's fine. Don't worry.
Um, so I heard I think it I'm almost
certain it was Jordan Peterson on a clip
and he said there's only one sentence in
the Bible about choosing a partner and
it says uh choose somebody that you
could go to war with. Someone that would
stand side by side with you and you
would go into battle with. I'm like ah
that's beautiful and what a gorgeous
sentiment. You know, it's sort of
teamwork. It's camaraderie. You're sort
of fighting together. Uh that's
brilliant. And it's Jordan Peter like
he's done the he's obviously done the
research like he wouldn't get this
wrong, would he? I decided, no, Jordan
wouldn't get this. He wouldn't He
wouldn't misite this on the internet. I
already don't believe it. I then retold
this story to uh Jocker Willink, Navy
Seal, big scary large hands, large head.
Large hands, large head. Oh, I know him.
Yep. Uh see, and I was like, Jocker, let
me tell you this. There's only one
sentence in the Bible that talks about
uh choosing a partner. It's uh choose
someone you could go to war with. This
gets clipped, put online. And I was
thinking to myself, I'm like, look,
first off, Jordan Peterson said it.
Presumably he's read it. But even if he
hasn't, look how big that is. No one
knows what No one knows all of the words
that are in the Bible. Like no one knows
all of it. Oh, they know. Oh, they
really know what the They really know.
And I learned how much they know when I
went for the first time to a uh Austin
Ridge Bible Church. This is I love
Austin Ridge. Easter. That's the church
that I went to. Okay. So Easter last
year, Easter Sunday last year. This is
like this is like the la palooa, right,
of of religious services. I know.
There's traffic marshals outside.
They're guiding people in. I pulled in
behind a uh like soft top supercar that
had God now as the number plate. I was
like, "Okay, this is like a different
That was me, actually. That was my car."
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Brilliant. Thank you.
Yeah. I thought I thought that you
drove. Uh, so I get in and the lady
that's there, I thought that this was
the person that was going to start and
it wasn't. This was the warm-up act to
the warm-up act to the music act to the
pastor or whatever. Uh, and she starts
using this sort of religious language
and she's saying, "Uh, guys, we must
remember to have faith and forgiveness
uh, and patience when turning right onto
Bave Road coming out of the car park."
And I was like, "Oh, wow. Okay, even the
traffic marshalling is done is like
couched in sort of Christian language."
Anyway, this keeps on going. They spent
60 minutes on like three passages and
this is what they just work through the
Bible slowly. So I was like, "Oh, people
really know what's in the Bible." I I
just assumed say 200,000. I don't know
how much it is. It's lots and lots of
words. No one knows whether or not they
go to war thing. Um
Christian people on the internet got
mad. They were really unhappy at the
fact that I just like injected this cool
little anecdote into a book that they
really knew inside out. Anyway, look,
even if the specificity of it was wrong,
the sentiment was right. I think it's a
lovely sentiment. And maybe if they do a
if they do a second version, they could
there's only there's only one version.
Anyways, but
but I do love that line. Jordan, thank
you. I I I gleaned as if I was like,
"Oh, yeah. I missed that one." Yeah. I
was like, "Where's that?" So, it's not
your fault. Yeah. I think there is truth
to that. you you find someone you do go
to war with who will never give up on
you, who will sacrifice for you. That I
would say that is true. So tell those
Christians to quit judging.
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You mentioned earlier on you're on on
the hunt in some form or another, maybe
passively, maybe actively. What do women
really want from men? What do they
actually want in a man? What do men
really want from women? What do women
What do women really want from men?
Yeah, we want to feel safe. Um, we want
to feel protected. We want to feel um we
want to know that you're, you know,
Jesus. Because
just being in this Christian walk, I
realize that unless you if you don't
know Jesus, you're just not anchored.
And I don't mean that to put people
down. I really don't because I have many
friends who are not religious. But I
know that when I didn't have Jesus, I
was so lost. I didn't know. I I I acted
on emotion. I just didn't know. So for
me, like I need someone who is rooted,
who is anchored. And the only way that
you're truly anchored is if you're if
you have Jesus. And I'm sorry. And I and
I don't I don't mean that in a in a
harsh way. I really don't. But I have to
come from a place of what how I how it
is. Mhm. Um I wonder whether part of
that is a reason for men increasingly
turning to the church that they feel
like you know women feel displaced in
some ways but I think especially over
the last 10 years or so which is when
this change has happened. I wonder
whether guys are doing that. But I also
wonder whether it's guys that are
thinking if I want to show up and find a
partner that I can build a family with,
it's something doesn't speak to me about
what's happening in the current pop
culture and I'm going to find a
different cohort, a different group of
people to maybe try and build this
around. Yeah. And I know and it's just
and I just want to add one one more
thing. I know when your eyes are on
Jesus because again it goes back to we
are all flawed. We have so much pride
and ego and sin that I know if you're
truly focused on Jesus, you're going to
be so focused that you're going to every
day crucify yourself and to do the right
thing. Because the truth is is
relationships are hard. It's hard to in
the modern world now where we're in
relationships where there's ABCD where
you can go on an app, you can you're
with someone for two, three years and
you're like, you know what, I want to
try something new. But if you're really
devoted to Jesus, you're going to you're
you're different. you're you're not
going to be, you know, 100%. Yeah. Are
you worried about this uh opportunity in
religious revival, the uh vacuousness
and and uh hollowess that some people
are finding in pop culture, opening up a
gap in the market for people who don't
truly believe to step in to
commercialize that to sort of turn it
into uh I mean there's been pastors
since the beginning of time that have
sort of financially capitalized on their
followings and stuff. Is that something
that you guys are concerned about about
people sort of seeing openings where
they can take advantage of that? Yeah.
Um I would say this is something I
actually talk about all the time because
it's a really interesting time where I'm
sure you know being on the internet that
Christian content like Christianity has
become super trendy. Um there's more
Christian podcasts obviously than ever.
There's a lot of Christian content
that's created and pushed. And on one
hand, it's the most beautiful thing in
the world. We have a podcast where we
know we have countless hundreds and
hundreds if not thousands of people who
have come to Jesus through a podcast.
It's incredible. People who have never
opened up a Bible in their lives will
hear scripture, will hear the word of
God on a 30-se secondond reel. You know
what I mean? This is incredible.
And
Christianity is not supposed to be
relatable. It's actually not supposed to
be trendy. Christianity, the gospel,
Jesus is actually incredibly offensive
because it goes against our natural hard
wiring as humans. Like it should be
offensive. It shouldn't be that trendy.
We we want to be relatable so that
people can relate to us and say, "Oh, I
see myself in them. Maybe Jesus can do
that for me." But we don't want to water
down Christianity to be relatable.
That's not the point. So, there's
something interesting about how there is
power in Christian content being pushed
and all of that. And it I could argue
like that the cross of Christ loses
power when it becomes trendy because
there's something so like there's
nothing heavier, more weighty than the
gospel of Jesus. And so to water it down
to something for financial gain is
obviously really scary. Well, I imagine
there's got to be a tension between
wanting to be successful with your show
and the need for humility. So, you know,
this balance between boldness and
humility as Christian influencers,
trying to get a message across whilst
also having this personal relationship
and doing your own transformation thing
and wanting to tell other people about
something that's really meaningful to
you whilst not um perverting the
message. Yeah. Yeah. Is that a tension
that you guys have to navigate? Um, I
just I think the
connection between boldness and humility
is so beautiful because they're not in
opposition to one another. Jesus
literally embodies bold both boldness
and humility at the same time. Like he
is so humble, so low, the lowest, the
most humble man that's ever walked the
face of the earth and the absolute most
bold person to have ever lived. like
literally went and spoke a message to
people who would try to kill him for it
and he did not care and he never
stopped. He is literally humility and
boldness and the scripture describes him
as like the lion and the lamb at the
same time. Like that is like the
dichotomy of Jesus is so beautiful. Um
and that's what true masculinity is.
Like it's not this alpha uh be strong,
work out and get a lot of girls. Like
that is not what masculinity is.
masculinity. True masculinity is first
of all the face of Jesus, a wounded man
on a cross that reigns in heaven for the
rest of eternity. And it's being a lion
and a lamb at the same time. Yeah. And I
just And listen, there's been times
where, you know, we're everybody loves
like a good job and we're trying to be
bold and we're trying to we're like, did
I do a good job? But the minute we put
our eyes on ourselves and take it off of
Jesus, we've we've missed it. And I
think that's what a lot of people do. So
it's constantly looking at Jesus, being
bold, and being like every the we're not
here to serve ourselves. We're here to
serve Jesus. And I think my whole life I
was self- serving myself. How can I get
from A to B? I want to be this. I want
to make something of myself. And I had
gotten it all wrong. And so what a gift
that I don't have to go by my own
strength anymore. I don't have to like
try to be something and try to get the
approval of others, which sometimes I
do. I'm not going to sit here and say
that I'm perfect. I h I do sometimes,
but it's a constant, wait a minute, this
isn't about me. This is about you. So,
it's a constant keeping your eyes on
Jesus and remember who we're glorifying.
It's not ourselves, it's Jesus. And
that's where you get boldness. Yeah.
When it comes to sharing your testimony
online,
do you find it difficult to sort of
balance oversharing versus transparency?
You know, it must be hard to not feel an
incentive to be performative with a
private transformation because it's
something that's so important to you,
but also you've got to navigate your own
thing and you don't want to have these
incentives come and tempt you to uh
overe or fall out of touch with what's
actually going on. But then there is,
you know, a few million people that are
hanging on your every word about what
the most recent update is in your faith.
Yeah. Um I mean it really for me
personally boils down to my relationship
with the Holy Spirit. I am very very
careful because so our time with Jesus
is called the secret place. Like we're
supposed to meet Jesus in the secret
place. wherever that is for you. You get
down on your knees or you sit on your
couch or you sit on your bed at whatever
time of the day, usually the morning,
and you go and that's your time where
you meet with Jesus. And what happens in
the secret place is secret, right? It's
like you have conversations with God
that nobody hears about. Like it's meant
to be private. And then there are things
that happen in the secret place that I
believe the Lord allows you to share.
And there's a lot that he doesn't want
me to share. And I know the difference
by the voice of the Holy Spirit. I can
tell when something is for me. I can
tell when something is for me to share.
Um I feel a heavy con conviction not to
minister from a from a broken place.
It's okay. I am broken. It's okay to be
broken, but I never want to minister
from a broken place. I don't want to be
fully bleeding. Um because I just
believe that maybe I believe that the
Lord cares about me more than he cares
about what I can do for him. So he
doesn't need me to bleed out at the cost
of myself. And so that's how I measure
what I share and what I don't share. It
is very This is probably the most
important thing for me personally is
that like Lord, is this okay for me to
share? I'm not about to go tell art.
It's like if you and your spouse or me
and my spouse have a conversation that's
so incredibly private and intimate and
I'm just like going out and telling
100,000 people, you know, it's the same
thing. Yeah. I think for me, I think
it's a little bit different for me. I
think that my testimony So, when I
started the podcast, I had just started
reading the Bible. I knew nothing. I was
like, I know that Jesus saved my life
and I don't know any scriptures. Angela
was the biblical one, but um I came I I
all I had was my heart and so I would
just like bleed out. Um I remember being
like, "You better get another co-host
cuz I don't I'm not doing this." Like I
had this facade up my whole life on on
social media. You were would have
thought I was Princess Diana with the
way I acted. Like you would have thought
my life is perfect. and to be so
vulnerable and to talk about my mental
health and suicidal thoughts and all
these things was really difficult. I
remember I got a message from a girl and
she was like, "I almost took my life and
because of you guys' podcast, I didn't
because I felt seen." And so every time
I go on there and I'm scared, I'm like,
"This is really hard, but Lord," I
always check in with him and I'm like,
"What can I say to reach your people to
make as hard as this will be? What can I
can do? I be vulnerable today so I can
reach your people because it's not about
it's not about us. It's about
being a vessel for Jesus to reach his
people. And so if that is bleeding out
our lives and talking about the hard
stuff, I'm like, it's worth it. You
know, it definitely seems like anyone
who takes the religious pivot gets a lot
of scrutiny online. And you guys have
got lives from before and you've got
lives now. and the lives now is
significantly more public and presumably
a lot more scrutinized. How do you
handle moments when your past gets
resurfaced against you? Right.
Well, I look at a man nailed to a cross
and I'm like, yeah, there's just
something so um beautiful about life
with Jesus because you can't have a
testimony of Jesus without the past,
without your past. And I think it's a
really interesting like idea that you
would weaponize somebody's past against
them because you can't weaponize
somebody's past against them as a
Christian because that's literally the
testimony of Jesus. We have Saul to
Paul, one of the most prolific and
important people, impactful people of
the entire Bible. What would Paul be
without Saul? Like who would he be? We
wouldn't have the testimony of Jesus in
his life if we didn't know about the
Saul that was literally killing
Christians, crucifying every he was in
direct opposition to everything that
Jesus taught and was. And so if Paul
like cleaned up his past and didn't want
anyone to know about it, we wouldn't
have 60% of the New Testament. You know
what I mean? So it's a really
interesting thing if someone tries to
weaponize it against you because it's
like, hello, it's literally death to
life. It's literally the most beautiful
thing. The sin is not beautiful. The
dark past is not beautiful. But what
Jesus does, how he truly takes dead
things and brings them to life and he
completely takes somebody's life and
turns it upside down and flips it on its
head and they become new people from the
inside out. You can't have that without
your past. So if someone's weaponizing
your past, it's like great. Actually
tell more people so they know the power
of Jesus. But I think and I think the
other thing we've tried our best to do
on our journey is to always be honest
because what's done in the dark will
always come to light and we do not hide
that we've had a past and even and we've
let people down sometimes but we Angela
and I always try to always be honest and
um so yeah we I think that's a big one
being honest with our past. so
authentic, so honest. You have to be. Is
going viral with face- based content a
blessing or a burden for you guys? Like
I imagine it's hard to navigate internet
fame and keep a spiritual grounding at
the same time. Great question. It's been
the biggest blessing.
It has been the biggest blessing of our
lives being able to grow. Like the
difference between us and a pastor is
that we they've grown with us. They've
seen our transformation and they've
grown with us. On the other hand,
I'll just speak for myself. I don't want
to speak for you, Ang. Um,
usually people build a foundation before
they come in to ministry. We quote
unquote had success overnight and we
were catapulted very fast. Like I don't
even know. It's It happens so fast.
Sometimes I'm like, "What? Where are
we?" You know?
Um, so sometimes I feel like I have no
place to stand on. I don't have What
legitimates me being here? Where is my
ex? Yeah, I have I don't have all the
answers. I I'm still trying to figure it
out. I'm still trying to I I still fall
I fall short of God's glory every day. I
am so imperfect. I'm so flawed. I've had
to unlearn so many things that I've been
accustomed to since I was a little girl.
I'm like relearning. I feel like I'm a a
young girl all over again. Like I
literally have to rewire my brain,
unlearn things while still teach young
girls and even older girls. And so
sometimes I'll be standing there and I'm
like, I don't know what I'm doing, you
know? So I think that it's been such a
blessing, but incredibly weighty at the
same time. Is that is that a a word?
Weighty. It's weighty, girl. Weighty.
It's weighty. It is. So um yeah, I think
Yeah. I mean there's it's I would never
describe it as a burden. It's not a
burden. It's a blessing and there's a
cost to it. You know, there's a cost to
being a Christian in general, first and
foremost. And then there's a major cost
to being in ministry. And like um we
have the podcast and then we are on
tour. We do live events. It's ministry
in person and we pray over incredibly
broken, desperate people who need help,
who need Jesus. And so it's there's so
much weight to it, but it is the
greatest blessing of our lives. And I
think one more thing that I'll add to
that is like you know what missionary
work is, right? Like missions trips like
you go to different places in the world
or even in America and you basically
just help establish culture and like a
church environment and help people in
different you know um ethnic groups and
different places in the world. And I
heard of the story of this couple in
Brazil who have this base and they
basically bring in like a bunch of
people, a bunch of believers and they go
out into these communities and they just
help them impoverished people, gang
members, like they evangelize, preach
the gospel, all this stuff. And they
have like a rule basically that's like
for all the people in on their base, if
you didn't for some reason get time with
the Lord. If you didn't spend time with
Jesus, don't even go out there. Just go
spend time with Jesus. don't even come
out that day because it is not worth you
coming out in your own strength, in your
own might. If you don't have Jesus to
offer them, you don't have anything to
offer. So for us, like I'll speak for
myself personally, if I don't spend time
with Jesus, I have nothing to offer in a
microphone. I have nothing to say. I
will not go. I don't want to do it. I am
not there. We're not there for a
paycheck. We're not there to be on an
elevated stage with a microphone in our
hands. You know what I mean? And it's
just like if God wanted to take all of
this away tomorrow, it's okay. It's
really okay because it is truly about
people. It's about bringing people to
Jesus. The best analogy I've heard
around that is that you don't serve
people from your cup. You serve them
from the source of the overflows around
your cup. Here,
seriously, you're a pastor. You're a
preacher. We're going to see we're going
to see Chris next year. He's going to be
preaching the gospel. No. No. Keep
going. I just want to ask you a question
later. What's your relationship like
with Faith? Yeah. This episode is
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I've said this before, there's a line in
Angels and Demons, the movie by Dan
Brown. You've seen it. It's got you
McGregor in it and Tom Hanks. Tom Hanks
is playing the professor and he's trying
to get down into the Vatican archives to
get access to some something. there's a
bomb going to go off and he needs to get
down there and see Leonardo da Vinci's
secret scripts or whatever and the
pope's died. So it's the camelango which
is paid played by Yuan McGregor and he
says I need to get down here. The camel
turns to me and he says uh do you
believe professor and he starts giving a
politician's answer and he says well you
know we need to define what we mean by
faith so on and so forth. He said I
didn't ask that asked if you believed
and he turns straight to the camera and
he goes faith is a gift that I'm yet to
be given. M you said that to me.
Yeah, it's I'm completely open to it.
Yeah, but
uh Alex Okconor, good friend of mine.
We've had a lot of conversations about
religion. Uh I can't remember. I think
the line is from Chesterton where he
says uh Christianity has not been tried
and found wanting. It has uh been found
hard and not tried. Like found difficult
and not tried. And I think I know I'm
I'm completely open to it, but it's
something that as of yet hasn't come
into my life.
Are you do you feel fulfilled?
Yes. In life you do. I do. Do you feel a
longing in your spirit like you're
looking for something?
Yeah, I would say so. But I wonder how
much of that is just part and parcel of
being a human. Mhm. And I suppose that
when it comes to someone who has found a
higher purpose like you guys have that
if that longing goes away my assumption
that well you know like uh there's a
translation from Buddhism that says uh
uh life is unsatisfactoriness.
Life is unsatisfactoryiness that
inherent in life is this sense of
longing this sense of lack this sense of
of uh something that's being that's
missing. Yeah. Um it the translation is
supposed to be life is suffering but it
could also be life is unsatisfaciness.
And I think life is unsatisfactoryiness
is an interesting way to look at it. It
is. But then if someone finds faith and
says uh that thing that you thought that
was built in to life that was a feature
of life isn't a feature. It's actually a
bug and the path that I've decided to go
on is something that's changed and has
gotten rid of that for me. Then who am I
to say that something that I think is
just a built-in part of being a
sensitive human isn't right and could be
something that you get rid of. Did your
parents have faith? No, not
particularly. Mom's a Raiki master, so
she's spent a lot of time in and around
that kind of thinking, but I don't think
she would consider herself sort of
formally religious in that way. Right.
Do you have a good relationship with
them? Yeah. Yeah. It's great. It's
beautiful. Do you ever do Raiki? I uh
She does it to me. M uh but and I mean
she's got an army of women that do
distant healing and all sorts of other
stuff, crystals and and things like
that. Do you feel like it's worked at
all? Uh sometimes I've got an extra
boost from somewhere that I haven't been
able to explain and I'm unsure where
that's come from, right? And then it
goes away. Uh yeah. Yeah. Ups and downs.
That's what I I used to do. I did Raike
a couple times. No, I really did. Yeah.
I You really tried it all. I tried it
all. Yeah. Oh yeah, that's amazing. I
really except for Iawaska. I'm very glad
I didn't go down that road. But yeah, I
know I did. I I dipped in a lot of
stuff. Yeah, going back to the source of
the overflows around your cup thing, I
think it really is important to
look after yourself first, and it's
regardless of whether or not you're
giving testimony or, you know, teaching
people how to be devoted and find faith
or you're just trying to show up for
your family or your business. Like if
you haven't looked after yourself, I
don't think that you can expect to show
up in the world in a very functional
way. And you know the classic idea of
you're in an airplane and the masks
descend and there's a child next to you.
It's like you put your own mask on first
because if you're suffocating, you're of
very little use to the people around you
that need you. Yeah. And they do. So
yeah, it's it's got to be a difficult
one for you guys to navigate to think,
okay, I've got to sort my own thing. I'm
on my own sort of personal trajectory.
And there's a lot of people that are
very bought into this and have got, you
know, decades and decades and decades
more experience than you guys are doing
the thing that you're doing. Totally.
But you've traded, it seems to me,
you've traded uh expertise for
relatability. Yeah. And
as with everything, you know what it's
I'm going to make an analogy that you
might hate. uh you are the Jake Paul of
the religion world of the Christian
world in that you're someone to people
that have come into this without the
heritage of people that have been in
there for a very long time and have got
a lot of popularity and along with that
is going to come a lot of scrutiny.
Well, do these people really believe
what they're saying? Like this seems
like a very welltimed pivot. It's like,
well, if it was something that was
called to me, how do you know the
difference between this being a
legitimate personal miss mission and it
being a uh fortuitous moment in pop
culture where people are trying to find
something that's more meaningful and
like no one's able the same with Jake
Paul. Is he actually a good boxer? Maybe
these fights are paid off, you know,
like this isn't really true. He's
fighting Mike Tyson. That Mike was that
fight was thrown. Uh it's a an
interesting time to see that sort of
tension going on and I uh I don't envy
you guys having to having to navigate
that at all. Uh it's hard enough trying
to do it without the pressure of it
being someone's faith, right? and you
having a couple of millennia of um
momentum behind you and trying to sort
of work out, okay, how do we do this
respectfully without triggering people,
without um looking like we're
capitalizing whilst also pushing a
message that we think is really
meaningful to both of us. That's that
doesn't seem easy to me. Yeah. I mean,
at the end of the day, I think what's
really special, especially with long-
form content, is that people really do
know who you are. They get to know you.
They spend hours upon hours with you. So
yeah, when someone looks at your
Instagram, 30 second reel, two blonde
girls talking about Jesus, like might
not be the most convincing thing, right?
I think anybody who watches a
full-length podcast of ours, a full-
length episode, immediately knows like
Jesus is in this. These girls believe
what they're talking about. Um, and it's
authentic and it really is. And we get
to put our pillow heads on our pillows
every single night knowing that we seek
the face of Jesus every day begging him
to show up in everything that we do. And
he does. And you know, scripture talks
about how you will know them by their
fruit. The fruit of what we do is like
this is what I'm confident in. I'm not
confident in that we know what to say or
that we're the best and they like who
cares. I'm confident in the fruit of
what we do. in the people's lives that
have been transformed, in the people of
countless different faith backgrounds
and religions who have come to know
Jesus because of um us preaching the
gospel. Like that's
that's everything. Yeah. And we know why
God put us on here. We He didn't put us
on here because we're Bible scholars. He
put us on here so we could look in the
face of others and be like, "Me, too.
You're not alone. You're seen. We have
passed, too. We messed up, too." And so
there's nothing like feeling seen and
knowing you're not alone and being like,
wait, you don't have to be perfect. You
don't have to have it all together. And
so I we remind ourselves, no, we don't
have to have it all together. Like this
is why he put us on here. And we have
one audience at the end of the day, and
that's Jesus. And so as scrutinized as
we might get, we look at each other and
we're like, Jesus. And we get so much
support. It's insane.
They're like, "We get more support than
scrutiny if I'm being honest." I don't
even really see that much scrutiny. We
get like one or two comments, but like
we have the GGB is they're the best.
They they're ride or dies. It's insane.
It's interesting, you know, sort of
thinking about this arc. Let's take How
old are you guys? 29 and 25. I'm just
kidding. I'm 35.
Uh I just sinned.
I'm sorry, Jesus. Please forgive us.
See, I can get away.
Yeah. Yeah. Under the table. Um, how old
are you? That doesn't work. 37. Yes, it
does work. No. Jesus doesn't like this.
Yes. No, that's that's exactly how it
works. I Right. I used to say that all
the time though. Um, no crosses, no
that
over the last what, three decades since
we'll have been consuming stuff on the
internet to do with religion. It would
have only been 20 years ago that it
would have been super cool to have been
an atheist that that was kind of the
trendy world to be in that it was sort
of rationality. It was Richard Dawkins.
It was Sam Harris. It was Daniel
Dennett. It was Christopher Hitchens. It
was, you know, Owens pastor debunks
story from the Bible. so on and so
forth. And uh I think certainly in my
teenage years that was like it was
trendy. It was kind of um revolutionary.
Uh it felt rebellious in a way. It was
um forward thinking. It was forthcoming.
It was rational. It was scientific. And
you sort of roll the clock forward to
now. And I wonder,
one of the problems I think is that
humans aren't really very well
constructed to understand statistics and
numbers. We live in narrative and
personification and archetype and story
and good and bad and evil and
characters. And this is again from my
friend Alex who did philosophy and
theology at Oxford, so he's way smarter
than me. Um, and he explained, well,
what you're asking people to do is let
go of the thing which to them feels most
real, which is personification, story,
narrative, archetype, characters, good,
bad, why does this happen? It's like a
as a a pro-social uh relational
understanding of how things came to be.
You're telling them to get rid of the
thing which to them feels the most real
and to start to rely on, well, look at
all of these facts and numbers and
statistics that we've got here. Then
even if you were to say, "Well, yeah,
but the scientific method is really,
really reliable. Like, it's the entire
reason that it's here. Look at all of
the great advances that we've had. Look
at all of the stuff that's around us
because of what we've done." It's like,
"Yeah, I understand that." But there's a
difference between something being
literally true and functionally true.
And a lot of the time I wonder I had a
conversation with Richard Dawkins about
this very thing. You know, world's most
famous atheist probably. And as I'm sat
there, he's explaining about how, you
know, I don't really have time.
Obviously, he's very critical of
religion. I don't really have time to
sort of indulge people's fantasies or
their delusions and stuff. I'm like, I
get that, but even if you don't believe,
you have to understand why people do
believe and it's because what you're
offering uh as an alternative is just
not very compelling. Like it's not
fulfilling to have well yeah but let me
explain to you about how this study
worked and look at the R not number and
we we know it's a statistically
significant value and you go I I I get
that but the explanation just doesn't
fit into the human mind as well as
something that is a little bit more um
inherited. I love that you say that so
much. Go ahead. Oh no. I I am obsessed
with this conversation, but I'm also
obsessed with what you said a second ago
about atheism. Can we talk about that
really quick about how I talk about this
all the time how back in the day how
atheism was just like it was the way to
go. It was the way to rebel. And I think
because of the liberal and progressive
movement that went so far the other way,
so far like freedom, liberation, dye
your hair, get tattoos, be whatever you
want, blah blah blah, all this stuff. It
went so far that way that people are
like, "Okay, getting like a sleeve of
tattoos and dying my hair blue is no
longer rebellious. I'm gonna become a
devout Catholic because that's what
what's rebellious these days." Like
truly, I mean, it went so far the other
way that I just I just love that
conversation. I think that's so
interesting. And just like what you said
a second ago, anybody who would boil
down like the existence of humanity to
whatever theories they have, the Big
Bang, whatever it might be, and um
basically boil it down to nothing and
give no real foundational functional
answer to why we exist, why we're here,
the intricacies in how we were made as
human beings, the way our brains work,
the synchronicities of life,
It's not manifesting methods, trust me.
It's just it's just like how can you how
can you not search for more? How can you
not yearn for more? How could you like
just like put a lid on on life like
that? You know what I mean? Chris, what
what you bringing?
He goes, I said the manif it's not
manifesting methods. I promise. He goes,
"Yeah, sorry, Ronda Burn." Yeah, it's uh
well, I mean, we said before that one in
five American adults that were religious
as children are now losing their faith
as adults, but you've also got the
highest rates of sort of non-religious
to religious conversion. I'm going to
guess within religious, they'll mean
your guys' definition of I'm not
religious, but I have a relationship
with Jesus type thing. Uh, and I do
think a lot of it is something doesn't
feel right and there is not necessarily
the grass is always greener, but maybe a
little bit of that. It's like,
like I really feel like I emptied the
tank trying to do this thing. I wonder
as well whether uh childhood formal
religion
pushes kids. I'm this wasn't my
upbringing so I don't know but I wonder
whether that one in five is people that
felt like they were kind of they weren't
allowed to find their own route towards
some sort of belief that really fit for
them and when you get forced into
anything inevitably you're going to push
back against it. It's like like I don't
want to do this thing. It feels like it
feels like it's being imposed on me as
opposed to something that I chose. And
yeah, I mean I wonder how many times you
can sort of do this sort of
switcheroooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
and just keep on pivoting things around.
But yeah, the atheism to me is not
there's a great story actually that um
you know Ayan Hersy Ali do you know who
that is? Okay so the four horsemen of
the atheism apocalypse as they were
called Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris,
Daniel Dennett and Christopher Hitchens.
So there were these four guys me in a
room with these guys.
I would be I would be Wow. Yeah, that
would be like the weirdest Royal Rumble
UFC fight of all time. Can you set it
up? Yeah. Uh, well, one of them's dead,
so that's going to be difficult. But
I have Jesus on my side. Yeah, exactly.
You got better hair. Um, so uh they sat
down. They had this a bunch of famous
conversations and they were kind of the
fourthcoming of new atheism. There was a
fifth person that was supposed to be at
this particular meeting and this was
Ayan Hers Ali. Yeah. Uh, and it would
have been the only woman that was there.
She
about a year and a half ago uh did a
live conversation with Richard Dawkins
who was one of the four horsemen of the
atheism apocalypse and like what would
have been a previous uh compatriate of
hers I suppose had she been there uh and
she did a live event conversation on
stage and she spoke about how she had
been suicidal she'd been very depressed
and as somebody that had been you know a
very very staunch forthcoming public
atheist for her entire life that she'd
found faith
and she's having this conversation on
stage and she's explaining about how
dark her situation had been and this
thing so her hor horrendous and then
she'd found faith and she felt relieved.
She'd felt like she had been saved and
you know it's this sort of very touching
conversation that she's having on stage.
She got saved. That's what she said. She
got saved on stage. No. No. In advance.
Wow. Wow. Wow. And
uh she's explaining this to Richard and
Richard is a late 70s early 80s
evolutionary biologist and sort of a
hard fast old school atheist type
person. So she explains this very
heartfelt story to Richard and Richard's
first response apparently after the
applause dies down because this woman
sort of opened her heart up on stage is
yes but do you really believe that Jesus
moved a rock out of the way of a cave on
the fourth day after the thing? And my
friend Alex that was there said you he
just kind of didn't get it and it felt
very
um sterile and sort of not
it just didn't feel in touch or aligned
really with what was happening because
what you're seeing is somebody who
regardless of whether you believe that
that was something that happened it was
obviously a very emotional very
meaningful conversation and and journey
that this woman had gone on and then to
sort of bring it back to this statistic
based Well, how does a man move a rock
that weighs 45 tons? You know, it's like
it just felt and that I think is a a
little bit of an explanation around
why
uh new atheism is just less sexy at the
moment that it feels very sort of cold
and sterile and it doesn't regardless of
where you land on faith. That's not a
particularly reassuring message to hear.
If one woman opens up about her
suicidality and her depression and how
much she was struggling and then this
thing happened that made her feel whole
for the first time in a very long time
and your response is to do like some
legally bureaucracy red tape thing about
the weight of a rock and a man's ability
to push it and it I think that story
just really stuck in my mind as
something that's like are you surprised
that people don't find atheism that
welcoming or sexy like it's the most
cold sort of story that I can think of.
Chris, it's lifeless. It's lifeless.
It's lifeless. It is absolutely
lifeless. How can you possibly move
through life like that? How can you
possibly move through life just and even
with that guy that you're talking about?
Bless him. I'll get his name and I'll
pray for him. But like truly, I mean,
even that response is just so fueled by
pride to be, you know, to find an answer
um to combat this like incredibly
beautiful encounter that saved this
woman's life, it feels like, and then to
bring it back to that. But that's what
so much that's what fuels so much of our
world is pride and ego and arrogance and
wanting to be right and wanting their
point to be the one that's true. and
they'll like fight till the grave to
make sure that it's proven true. Can I
ask you a question? How do you deal with
just like what is your take on humility
and just ego and pride and like you have
a life where you're incredibly
successful and um you're incredibly
wise. You have a lot of knowledge. You
have the gift of wisdom on your life. By
the way, you didn't, no offense, you
didn't cultivate that. God gave that to
you. But you definitely have a massive
gift on your life and you're so
knowledgeable. So I think somebody like
you would be really easy to fall into
like I know everything, don't need
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It's a good question. And I'm British,
so it kind of gets beaten out of us as
children, I think, a little bit. We're
sort of uh nationalistically allergic to
having too big of an ego because there's
tall puppy syndrome. You know what tall
poppy syndrome is? You heard of that?
It's kind of a the flowers. Yes. So, uh
the point, oh, the the tallest nail gets
hit down first would be another way to
put this. But if you have a field of
poppies and one of them is very tall,
that's the first one that gets cut. So,
if you stand out too much, if you do
something that's too different, that
gets uh discouraged. And that's very
common in the UK. It's also very common
in Australia. Uh it's one of the reasons
that I love living in America because
for all that America is a
cisetetroatriarchal
racial superructure that's
misogynistically keeping everyone down.
The American dream is still very much
alive, I think. And it it you can be
whatever you want to be for the most
part. Blue sky vision is is here. And if
anybody from America thinks that that
isn't a supportive culture, go and spend
six months in the UK and tell me that
it's not worse. It's a very sort of uh
don't stay in your lane, right? You
could summarize it all as stay in your
lane. So that kind of pride thing has
not been something that I've had to deal
with too much. Uh also I've made a
career out of being the stupidest person
in the room of every conversation that
I've ever had. I bring experts on or I
bring people that are, you know,
significantly further ahead of me.
Academics, intellectuals, commentators,
thinkers, you know, whoever it is. Uh,
thank you, by the way. Yeah. Yeah.
Specialist. Specialist in the experts.
Thank you. Specialist in so much smarter
than you. You're in illustrious company.
I know. Yep.
Mhm. And it's very difficult to sort of
get out ahead of yourself there because
you go like what am I I'm always the
child in the room like even in this
conversation. Okay. Like explain like
I've got a question for you around
pride. Like to me pride is actually
something that I would like to cultivate
more of but I'm aware that there is a
particular definition of pride that I'm
probably not understanding fully. So
what does what? So when I think pride, I
want to feel a sense of gratefulness and
gratitude and celebration for a job well
done, right? I want to be able to pat
myself on the back when something that
was difficult was completed. And that to
me feels like, huh, that's a kind of
healthy pride. Like, well done. You
should be proud of your How many times
you say to kids, you should be proud.
You worked really hard. You did that
thing. But I'm also aware that pride is,
you know, a sin. So where how do
we like what what does pride mean to
you? And how do you come to navigate
wanting to give yourself a sense of a
pat on the back for a job well done
whilst not falling into whatever your
definition of pride is? Yeah, exactly
like what you said. There's basically I
mean I don't know the exact definitions
but there's two types of pride. There's
the pride where you are proud of
yourself. Um if you think about God, he
looks at us with a smile on his face and
with pride in his eyes, right? That's
not the sinful pride that's bad. That's
like pride as in like I'm proud of you.
You're my son. You're my daughter and
I'm proud of you. So that is a type of
pride. I look at Ari and I take pride in
my girl. Like that's a good thing. Um
the obviously bad pride, the sinful
pride is the one that is um arrogant and
self-protecting and um manipulative in a
sense and just like keeps people out and
thinks much of the one that thinks much
of yourself. And so I think in the
Christian walk and hopefully humans in
general, but I know it's not the message
that the world sends. Like the world
sends like make yourself big, get big,
get on top, be the best, be the biggest
in the room. And Jesus is like follow me
and go low, go low, go low, go as low as
possible. Humble yourself before the
mighty hand of God and in the right time
I will raise you up. Like that's what
God says. Like if we humble ourselves,
he lifts us up. Because if we exalt
ourselves, we will always fall. Like
it's just a recipe for disaster. You
never want to put yourself in a position
where you're trying to get higher
because you will eventually fall. But if
God exalts you, if he brings you up,
it's a place like if he sets you
somewhere, you can't fall down. You know
what I mean? And so, yeah, we follow the
message of Jesus. One of my favorite
scriptures is um it talks about how
you're going to love this. So Jesus did
not count equality with God as something
to be grasped. So Jesus was fully God,
fully man. But he didn't count equality
with God, being equal to God, as
something to be valued. And instead, he
completely emptied himself. He humbled
himself and took on the form of a
servant and he died a criminal's death.
Like that's who Jesus is and that's what
we try to emulate that it's not being
humble and is not being weak and being
um powerless. It's about like having
knowing who you are, knowing what you
have, knowing what you're capable of,
knowing how value infinitely valuable
you are, and being like, "But I'm not
going to rely on any of it." Yeah. Yeah.
And even just when you start really
reading the Bible and you start reading
about Jesus and how he was, everything
revolved around people, everything
revolves about him being a servant,
being in the dirt, his hands and feet in
the dirt, helping the poor. So like
serving sacrificially, sitting with the
sinners, healing the sick. And so when
you read about that, you're like, "Wait
a minute, this isn't about like me. This
is about his people and helping others
and being sacrificial and being one of
humility. That's what makes me proud.
And it's just it's funny when I look
back on my life. I'm like, I used to
want to be this and that. And now I'm
like, who can I help? What can I do? How
can I how can I help your people? That's
what makes me proud now. So, it's just
crazy how how things change when you
start when you start following him.
How's your daily experience of life
changed over the last 10 years or so?
You wake up your moment to moment sort
of experience of your own minds.
Go ahead.
Sorry.
If I see her mouth moving a little bit,
I'm like, you have something to say. Go
ahead. To share one brain cell, by the
way. Yeah, it's not working. Anyways, um
I think your question was the 10 last 10
years. How do you go about your life?
Okay, so this is how I would describe.
So you basically go from being
completely self-focused to being Christ
focused. And I don't know if you've ever
heard of like God consciousness, right?
Like you begin to be aware of God and
what he wants and where he's at, how
he's moving, what he thinks about this.
The Holy Spirit, do you know much about
the Holy Spirit? Okay. The Holy Spirit
is, you know, the Trinity. We have the
father, we have the son, and we have the
holy spirit. The holy spirit is
precious. He's a person. He's literally
an extension um a part of the trinity
when Jesus died on the cross. He
basically sent out a spirit to the
entire earth that whoever believes in
Jesus receives the holy spirit. And the
holy spirit is not just like a force. Um
he's not just like some angelic being
that flies around and like makes
miracles happen and makes healings
happen, which that is what he does. is,
but he's a person and his whole thing is
that he speaks. And like if you Chris
invite Jesus into your life and you say,
"Holy Spirit, reveal Jesus to me and
speak to me." You start to be aware that
he's in your thoughts. He sometimes can
even speak in an audible voice. He can
speak through pictures in your mind,
visions, dreams. He can speak through
other people. And so life with Jesus
over the past few years, when you really
lay down your life, you remove sin, you
stop tolerating sin in your life, and
you really allow God to purify your
heart and purify your life, you begin to
have conversations with the Holy Spirit
all day long. It's called communing with
the Holy Spirit. And it is just the most
incredible thing because you realize
like he is so intimately involved in
every area of my life. He cares about
what I had for breakfast this morning.
He cares what clothes I put on my body.
He cares deeply when you're arguing with
someone. He cares when you get to your
house and you feel alone. Like, he cares
about every single part and he's always
speaking. And so, yeah, that's how I
would describe the past few years of
life. I'm glad you brought up the Holy
Spirit.
Um, yeah, I always say like Ariel's
gone. She's died. I gave my life to
Jesus and I I live for him and
I have moments that it's really hard.
Like again, I'm going to go back to my
It's not easy. It has not been an easy
walk for me. Um from growing up in
Massachusetts of a family that is has
big miles and um all my best friends
from back home like we just we lived a
certain way back in Boston. Like we grew
up in the hard knocks. like it was just
I grew up um I wouldn't say the holiest,
you know. So going from living a certain
way to then laying down my life, I had
to lay it down really fast. Like I met
Jesus, met Angela, we laid our lives
down, I had to lay down sin. Like I had
to shape up really quick with cuz we
started our podcast really quick. That
was difficult. I still go through a lot.
I'm still like it's a lot of intimacy
with Jesus. Um it's a lot of asking him
to help me because
um I have certain thought patterns of
how I deal with things of anger issues
of um yeah just like I lived of the
world. I was in relationships of sexual
immorality. I I I didn't live a life of
purity. And so that was hard to lay
down. I'm not going to lie. But it's a
continuing yielding of the Holy Spirit
of being like I it's daily. You have to
see me in my private time. You would
laugh so hard. It is literally
hilarious. Again, I'm like a little
girl. I'm like, "Dad, I need help cuz
this is really hard." And so, it's just
a continually continuous being like,
"Help me. I am so flawed. I'm so
imperfect. I have all this stuff that
I'm trying to work out and I don't know
um how to deal with it." And so, it's a
lot of intimacy with him, a lot of
listening, um a lot of communing with
people. Um, I always say you will not be
able to stand if you don't have people
in your life. You need friends. You need
to be in community. Um, and just I'm con
I'm just I'm learning just constantly
learning constantly following falling
getting back up and just it's been it's
been falling getting up back up and
learning. But the Bible says you come to
me like a little child. You must if
you're going to come into that kingdom
of God, it must be childlike. And so,
um, yeah, I think that I'm like a little
girl. Like, you have to be curious. You
have to ask. You have to know that
you're not going to be perfect. Um, when
I first started Christianity, I almost
had this thing that I had to this
perfectionism. I can't do this. I can't
do that. And that's not life with Jesus.
We are going to fall. We are going to
fall short of his glory. People need to
understand that. But he's still sitting
there being like, "Come back. I'm here
to help you. Let's do this thing
together. So, I think in a a modern
world where everybody is their
accomplishments
that uh there isn't really anywhere to
hide in that way. If you do fall short,
then this is exclusively your moral
failing to sort of own and it's attached
to your self worth, your sense of self.
M uh and it doesn't surprise me that you
know when people struggle when they hit
something approximating rock bottom or
maybe even lower than that that they
think like I I just this is not working
and I need to try and find something
else. What's next for you guys? What do
you want to try and do over the next few
years? Like what would if you look back
in a couple of years time what would
have had to have happened for you to
have gone that was really good that was
a success.
Um I personally have so many dreams. I
would love to go do evangelistic work in
the Middle East. I really want to go
evangelist I'm not sure if you've kept
up with the news. It's a little bit of a
hot bed in the Middle East at the
moment. I do. I do. This is
evangelistic.
I I just want to like I love I have such
a heart for like my Muslim brothers and
sisters for the Islamic world. I would
love love love to see my biggest dream,
one of them is probably to see a crusade
of like a million people get saved. I
want to see powerful moves of God. I
want to see God heal um cancer. I want
to see God heal physical ailments. I
want to see God heal um things that
people have been living with their whole
lives. I want to see people set free of
mental torment. and whatever avenue that
he has for me to do that. Maybe it's the
podcast, maybe it's tour, we are so
literally open-handed like this, like
just being in I think what I've
personally learned more than anything is
that being in ministry does not mean
that I have to be in front of a camera.
It doesn't mean I have to have the mic
in front of my face. And I'm so okay
with that. In fact, like man, a season
of hiddenness sounds so good right about
now. And yeah, so I just I want to see
God move. I really want to see God move.
I can't wait to see you bring go to
Islamic countries. Um I have such a
heart for the sick and the broken and
children. And so um I hope God will
allow me to just help the sick. And um
I've just seen so much brokenness in my
life. And I've and just where I come
from, I come from a place where we're
taught that the only way to get better
is through medication or just like tough
it out or you have to be in survival
mode. And I just hope that we can start
building communities that people can go
to and learn about the Bible and have
friends that can help them. And yeah, I
just I want to help the sick and the
broken and help them come back home.
That's that's just like my favorite part
when we do the shows after we have a
little bit of ministry time and my
favorite part is like being with those
kids and just like having them in my
arms and being like I love you and
giving them hope and just holding them.
So you're going to build an orphanage. I
want to build orphanages. Yes, that is
that's already that is Yes.
She's going to be Mother Teresa just
with a boner hair and blonde hair and
it's going to be Yeah. Yeah. A
fashionable Mother Teresa. Hey, she was
fashionable. You know, she was Albanian
like me. Ah, a very strong heritage for
you to follow in her footsteps. Very
strong. Yeah. Yeah. Girls, let's bring
this one home. I appreciate you both.
Where should people go? They want to
keep up to date with all of the stuff
that you've got going on.
Thank you guys. Well, you can um follow
us at GirlsGoneBible.
If you don't want to do that, don't
worry. I, if I were you, would go pick
up a Bible and I would open it and I
would give my life to Jesus if I were
you because that's where you'll find
everything. You might find some good
stuff on our channel, but you'll find
something way better in here, which he
said. Thank you. I appreciate you both.
Thank you, Chris. Thank you for
everything. Thank you so much. Such an
honor to be with you today.
Thank you very much for tuning in. If
you enjoyed that episode, you will love
Freyer India, who is available right
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